Full write-up of the main event between Denys Berinchyk and Keyshawn Davis to come...
Keyshawn Davis won the WBO lightweight title on Friday, putting Denys Berinchyk down for the count with a body shot in the fourth round of their main event at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
The fight was ugly for the first two rounds, with lots of clinching and wrestling and only 13 combined punches landed between the two men. But early in the third round, Davis dropped Berinchyk with a left hook to the body; Berinchyk had ducked down thinking the shot was targeting his head, only for it to hit his midsection instead.
Davis returned to the body in the fourth, a left hook digging into Berinchyk's liver. Berinchyk went down and listened as the referee counted to 10.
Davis, a 25-year-old from Virginia who earned a silver medal in the 2020/2021 Olympics, is now 13-0 (9 KOs).
Berinchyk, a 36-year-old from Ukraine who took him the silver in the 2012 Olympics, suffered his first pro defeat and is now 19-1 (9 KOs). This was the first – and ultimately the last – defense of the vacant WBO belt he'd won last May with a split decision over Emanuel Navarrete.